Update

Expressionista here,
I am alive and well.  So much has happened since I last posted.  I actually rediscovered this blog while working on a blog post for a gym I'm interning at.  I'm 4 weeks away from having my Nutrition and Exercise Science Degree completed and entering into Naturopathic Med School at Bastyr or Osteopathic Med School in California.

A lot has changed.  I still adhere to a plant based whole foods diet but I've stopped eating raw exclusively, incorporating cooked starches and veggies into my diet.  Part of this was out of financial necessity but part of it was having lost weight too fast for my doctors comfort and had some weird electrolyte balance problems which may or may not have been related to my diet.  I've survived a bout of bizarre autoimmune problems and gotten into exercise in a big way as a certified personal trainer.  I'm also a Licensed Massage Therapist.

Wellness has really become the focus of my life, and although the rigors of the ND or DO program I'll be starting soon will test my self-care skills I haven't forgotten what started me off on this journey.

Jerk Salad

This little spur of the moment creation was too yummy not to share. The key is to chiffon or ribbon the collards and then massage it with salt, lemon/tomato, and finally avocado in that order. If you get the collard greens nice and relaxed you'll have a perfect salad. The spices make it perfect. Raw mesquite is a wonderful addition as it adds both a sweetness and a smokey luscious flavour.

Serves 1
1 bunch collards
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 med tomato
1/3 avocado
1 1/2 tsp Jerk Spice
1 tsp chili powder
1 tbsp raw mesquite powder

1. Chiffon collard greens into little ribbons
2. add salt
3. massage greens for 5 minutes
4. add lemon oil, tomato, massage for 3 minutes
5. add avocado, massage for 1 minute
6. add jerk, chili and mesquite

7. ENJOY THOUROUGHLY!

Chia Upma Breakfast (Raw-Vegan)

You won't see a recipe for Raw Chia Upma anywhere else on the net, believe me I googled ;) So what is upma and why is it my new favorite breakfast? The name 'upma' is a combination of the word for salt and the word for wheat Tamil. If you wiki it you'll find that it's usually made of a substance called suji or rava both of which are often made with refined grain. While it would be easy cook your own version with a healthy grain like millet or quinoa substituting, I knew there had to be a way to do it raw!

The key selling point of upma is that it's a quick, easy, and oh so filling breakfast treat you can make and enjoy at the last minute. So I'm not going to get to detailed in the recipe but if you feel so inspired go ahead and add more chopped veggies and spices, maybe even garnish with some soaked walnuts

What You'll Need:
1 cup hemp milk (would not reccommend almond milk for this recipe)
1/4 cup chia seeds
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp curry powder
1 pinch hing (Asafoetida)
1 pinch onion powder
2 tsp coconut oil

1 small bell pepper, chopped
2 medium stalks celery, chopped
1 handful cilantro (coriander leaf), chopped
1 handful dulse
1 tsp salt or kelp granules

To prepare, first pour hemp milk and chia seeds into blender. Add spices, coconut oil, let sit. Meanwhile chop your veggies and soak your dulse to make sure there's no little seashells stuck to it. Blend hemp milk, chia seeds, etc into a rough porridge, no need to pulverise it just mix things up a little. Next add your vegetables and salt and pulse a few times. If you wanna get fancy garnish with cilantro, coconut shavings etc, otherwise wait about 5 minutes (if you can!) for the flavours to mix and enjoy!

Coconut Luvs You!

Young Thai Coconut Yogurt (vegan)
Important: for this recipe, make sure all the kitchenware you use is clean and sterile. Make sure hands are washed, we're going to be fermenting this so we don't want to be adding anything that might contaminate the culture.

• 1 young green thai coconut
• contents of 1 probiotic capsule

Crack open coconut with a large butcher knife. This takes some practice and be careful when you're hacking around. It takes quite a lot of force to get it open but once you feel the coconut water splash you can pry it open. Pour coconut water into a 1 quart jar.

Now it's inspection time, look at the inside of the coconut, look at the colour of the flesh. What we're looking for is WHITE, not purple, not pink, not even violet. If you get any aberrant colour its best to throw it away and try another, this is the risk you take buying coconuts.

Once you've got a good coconut scrape out the inside. This can be done with a large spoon or a plastic scraper like the one that comes with a vitamix. Put the meat in your blender and combine with enough coconut water to almost entire cover your meat. Add the contents of your probiotic and blend until smooth.

Place at room temperature for 16 hours to ferment. Smell yogurt to see if it smells like yogurt. If it smells off it's best to start over and try again, once again better safe than sorry when it comes to fermentation.

Refrigerated yogurt stays good for 4-5 days.

Cats Against Climate Change

Kimchi a l'expressionista

So spicy, so tangy, so tasty; it's kimchi! Sure you can buy it in the store but you either get pasturized crap or pay way too much for a little jar of "live" kimchi. The solution of course is to make your own or, saving that, feel free to make mine. It's packed with vitamins and a plethora of probiotics. Everything you need to get you through the sickness season plus hot peppers of course!

Kimchi a l'expressionista
Important: for this recipe, make sure all the kitchenware you use is clean and sterile. Make sure hands are washed, we're going to be fermenting this so we don't want to be adding anything that might contaminate the culture.

• 1 gallon jar for fermenting
• 2 med heads of napa cabbage
• 5 carrots with tops
• 5 sunchokes (jerusalem artichoke)
• 3 heads baby bok choy
• 1 finger of ginger, diced
• 5 green onions, chopped
  
• 2 tbsp paprika
• 10-15 dried aji peppers (feel free to substitute)
• 2 tsp sea salt
• black pepper to taste
  

The first step is to get into a fist fight with you cabbage. Upon peeling off the leaves, place them in a large metal container. Add salt. Now you're going to punch down into the bowl, hard enough to start to break down the cabbage, but hopefully not hard enough to hurt your fist. Toss in bok choy.

Set this aside and get out your food processor. Of course you can chop the veggies by hand but I'd suggest at least grating them to keep the chunks uniform. Grate the carrots and sunchokes. These will make up the bulk of the food for our culture. I used the carrots leafs after cleaning them and cutting them from the stalks. They make an excellent addition to the kimchi. Chop and toss in with the cabbage and bok choy, which should be softening because of the salt.

Time to spice it up! Stir in your ginger, green onions, paprika and peppers. Next stir in the contents of a probiotic capsule if you have one on hand. This will speed up the fermentation and reinforce the good bacteria. Top off with black pepper.

Next transfer mixture to your fermentation jar. Hopefully you come pretty close to filling up the gallon, the less room at the top the better. Push down on mixture with a ladel or large wooden spoon. It should be rather juicy by now. Insert a rolled up cabbage leaf into the top to keep the kimchi under the juice.

Set the kimchi somewhere it won't be disturbed for the next week. Room temp is ideal. In seven days time it should be ready. Taste it, you're looking for a tangy spicy taste. If it's not sour enough, let it sit for a few days longer.

Enjoy!

Tea Review: White Chai from Remedy Teas

I'm really picky about my chai. Being lucky enough to enjoy fresh brewed cup from scratch at a local cafe I suppose I'm a bit spoiled. When I make it for myself it usually involves pan-roasting the spices, adding fresh ginger and steeping the masala (spices) for at least an hour or so.

That's why I was taken aback by the White Chai (#18) from Remedy Teas. It's a mix designed for quick steeping which made me expect the weak Oregon Chai-like brew with a bit of a nasty aftertaste. This was nothing like that. While not as robust as a slow-brewed cup of home made chai it's a perfect everyday tea and best of all has the effervescent taste for which Silver Needle known balanced with cardamon, ginger, and all the other classic chai masala spices. It warms you up without getting you wired.